Improved tongue and caster plate for harvesting-machines



R; EMERSON Jr. Tongue Plate for Mowing Machines] Patented May 26, 1857.

N. PiTERs- Huh-madam Wm B, C-

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC RALPH EMERSON, JB., OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVED TONGUE AND CASTER PLATE FOR HARVESTING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No 17,367, dated May 26, 1857.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RALPH EMERSON, Jr., of Rockford, in the county of Winnebago and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tongue-Plates for Harvesting-Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 represents a'view in perspective of a portion of the frame of the harvesting-machine described in Letters Patent of the United States numbered 14,026, granted to John H. Manny, January 1, 1856, to the hinged draftbar of which my improvement is added, being a plate of metal to which the rear end of the tongue may be attached in different positions and at correspondingly varying distances from the standing grain. This plate detached from the frame is shown in plan in Fig. 2 and in cross-section in Fig. 3.

In that class of harvesting-machines in which the caster or truck which supports the tongue is connected to the cutter-carriage or main frame by means of a jointed draft-bar it has long been considered a desideratuin that thetongue by which-the machine is guided and drawn should be capable of adjustment, in order to bring it nearer to or carry it farther from the outer end of the sickle, thus varying its distance from the standing grain for the purpose of adapting the machine to the different situations and circumstances in which it is used.

My invention consists of what I call a tongue and caster plate, with two or more seats, to either of which the rear end of the tongue can be attached. By attaching the tongue to the respective seats of the plate its distance from the standing grain is increased or diminished.

It will be unnecessary to give a detailed de scription of all the parts of the harvesting'machine shown in the drawings, as they are fully described in the aforesaid Letters Patent granted to John H. Manny. This description will therefore be confined to such parts as embrace my improvement, or with which it is more immediately connected.

The plate A, to which the wheel B of the caster is pivoted, and which is jointed to the draft-bar O. is extended six or eight inches farther forward than is required for the support of the caster-wheel, and has a central web, a, and a flange, b, on each side, the spaces between the'flanges and the webforming two seats, 0 d, for the rear end of the tongue, to either of which it can be attached by bolts passing through it and through holes 6 in the web which separates the seats. The upper side of the central web likewise furnishes a firm support for the adjusting-bolt t to rest on.

Two holes, f, are bored through the draftbar (J, near its forward end, one over each seat on the tongue-plate, to correspond with the center of the tongue when attached to either seat. A strap, 9, with a hole, h, in its end is pivoted so that it can be swung over either hole in the bar 0. A bolt passing through the strap and the whiffletree (to which the horses are harnessed) into one of the holes of the draft-bar confines the whiffletree to the draft-bar in line with the tongue in whichever seat the latter may be.

The simplicity of this device for changing the position of the tongue in relation to the standing grain, its comparative freedom from liability to get out of order, and its cheapness of construction are great advantages over the more complicated and expensive devices heretofore in use for effecting the same object.

Having thus described my invention, I do not claim merely giving a lateral adjustment to the tongues of harvestingmachines, as this has been done in various ways; but

What I do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The tongue and caster plate constructed in the manner and for the purpose herein described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

RALPH EMERSON, JR.

In presence of- ISAIAH LYON, JOHN FIsHER. 

